Coroner makes recommendations about buses after pastor death

A coroner investigating the death of a pastor who fell from a bus on a New South Wales highway has made safety recommendations about bus doors.

Catherine Scott died in September 2009 after falling from the door of a Toyota bus on the F3 Freeway at Warnervale, north of Sydney.

The 45-year-old was a Pastor at Christian City Church at Tuncurry and her four children were on the bus with her.

They had been at a concert in Sydney with a church group and were returning to Taree at the time of the accident.

Soon after leaving a Service Station on the F3 at Warnervale, Catherine Scott noted that the bus door was open and wind was gusting through it, so the driver suggested she try opening the handle and pulling the door shut quickly

Coroner Alan Railton said the door had been modified before the bus was registered to install an electrically-operated wheelchair lift.

He said the door was changed from either a glide door or a concertina door to being rear-hinged, and in making that modification the standard driver control mechanism of the door was dismantled.

The coroner said the bus was being driven by Barry Caldwell, who got his relevant licence only months before the accident, but there is no evidence to suggest the manner in which he was driving was a contributing factor.

"It is a tragedy in itself that Mr Caldwell, who was volunteering his services, will live with that moment for the rest of his life," he said.

Coroner Railton said steps have already been taken by Roads and Maritime Services to locate and regulate buses with modified doors.

"It is my finding that the bus should never have been registered in its modified state and that fact should have been caught by the safety check required," he said.

His formal recommendations include that Roads and Maritime Services and the New South Wales Police Force consider a protocol that requires police to notify the RMS of any heavy vehicle detained by the police because it was involved in a serious incident and may pose a safety risk.

The coroner also recommended that some Taree Vehicle Inspection Branch staff do refresher training in certain bus door safety requirements.